Successful
Actions of Tureky Hill Grange - IL
When you think you can’t earn enough money to install an elevator and pave your parking lot, think instead about Turkey Hill Grange. When you think you can’t attract enough people to make having a dinner worthwhile, think about Turkey Hill Grange. When you think you can’t influence a big effort like creating a farmers market in your community, think about Turkey Hill Grange. When you think you can’t attract new members and get them to really understand Grange, think about Turkey Hill Grange!
Turkey Hill Grange doesn’t think about can’t. Instead they do!
While attending the National Grange Convention, Mary and David Donley shared some of the things that Turkey Hill Grange has done in the past few years, and the list is impressive!
Located near Belleville, Illinois, about 20 miles east of St. Louis, Turkey Hill Grange has a long and proud history. According to their brochure and membership application, Turkey Hill Grange was chartered in 1874 with nineteen members and quickly grew to 117 members just six years later. Membership has varied over the years – from a low of 60 to a high of 327 in 1950. In 1996 there were 156 members, and today’s membership is 201 which include 4 th and 5 th generation descendants of the some of the charter members.
“Our membership has stayed about the same in the last five years, but participation is way up,” says Mary Donley.
In early days, Turkey Hill Grange met in members’ homes, but they have had a Grange Hall since 1885, when the first Hall was built on one acre of land donated by a founding member for a school and Grange Hall. The first Hall was destroyed in 1904 by fire and the second one was removed in 1936 due to needed repairs. They have been in their current Grange Hall at the same location since 1937. “One of the goals we set as an Action Grange was to make our building handicapped accessible. In order to do that we had to build an addition to accommodate an elevator and accessible restrooms,” says Mary. “We signed the contract in 2003 and work was completed in 2004.”
David adds, “It cost us a total of $250,100, and we were able to raise all but $38,000 of that in a little over 18 months. We’ll have the rest paid off within two years. We saw a real shift in attitude since the beginning of the project. Some people who didn’t think we needed an elevator have changed their tune and become very supportive!”
“Since the renovation, we’re renting the hall 3-4 times a month with 2-3 inquires each week where we used to receive 1-2 inquires each month and only rent it 3-4 times a year!” says Mary. They hope to make their Hall so ‘community friendly’ that the rental income will soon pay for the upkeep of the building and free up that money for community service.
The renovation has meant that many of Turkey Hill Grange’s activities have been focused on raising money, and those efforts have also made them more visible and active in the community.
“Every Thursday afternoon from May through September, we hold a barbeque. People can do carry out, eat outside at our picnic tables, or even go inside to enjoy the air conditioning. This is the second year we’ve done the barbeques. Last year we made $14,000 and this year we cleared $15,000,” says David.
Turkey Hill Grange also has become known for their specialty dinners. “We do a chicken dinner on the Sunday before Palm Sunday, a ham and peach dinner with peaches in all forms including cobbler and spiced peaches and two kinds of potato salad, and a Wurstmarkt dinner where we deep fry sausage and serve it with sauerkraut, real mashed potatoes, and homemade applesauce,” says Mary. “We get about half our membership – 100 people - to help with each dinner, and we really need them because we serve about 800 each time.”
David adds, “It takes a lot of people to peel 25 bushels of peaches or 500 pounds of potatoes which is the kind of quantity we need! And then, since our dining hall seats 172 people at a time, we need people to take tickets, keep the buffet table replenished, serve in the dining room, usher, bus tables, and all that.” Turkey Hill Grange publishes a quarterly newsletter that identifies all the jobs that need doing for their next dinner and lists those who have volunteered to fill those jobs.
“This year we started a Dinner Theatre in association with an amateur theater group. Our Grange provided most of the cast, and we had a lot of fun doing it. We offered the theatre only on Friday night and then on Saturday and Sunday, we provided a smoked turkey dinner. What else would you expect at a Grange with turkey in its name? This year we served 210 people.”
“That’s how our dinners started too,” says David. “But next year, we should be able to double that and serve between four and five hundred people. We charge a little more than many other public dinners cost - $9.00 each – but people have come to know that we only use fresh food, it’s all home-made, and it’s really good.”
Turkey Hill Grange was also instrumental in developing Belleville’s Old Town Market which runs on Saturday mornings from May through October. “The city lets us use a park. We have seven members on the committee. We collect from the vendors just enough money to pay for entertainment and advertising, and then they have the opportunity to sell their produce. We have ten full time vegetable and fruit vendors. And then Grange has a booth where Grange members can sell their wares. Grangers keep 75% of what they sell for themselves and give the Grange 25%. And then we sell jams, jellies and apple butter which all are made by members in our Health Department approved kitchen. We sell 1000 jars of jam and jelly a year, and we sold 100 pints of apple butter in just 2 weeks!”
Mary tells about how a local Public Broadcasting television Station came and followed the process of making apple butter. “They took video of the whole process – picking, peeling, cooking, putting it into jars, selling – all the time asking questions. What kind of apples do you use? Why are they peeled? Why do you cook them in copper kettles? They put all their footage together into a 20 minute video which they aired numerous times both in 2004 and again in 2005. It was great publicity for us and brought customers from over 40 miles and by phone!”
Getting their members involved in raising funds has also served to get members interested in being involved in the community. “We sponsor a Boy Scout Troop of fifteen. They meet in our Grange Hall, and most of them are also Junior Grangers. The leader actually came to us because he had been leading a Cub Scout Troop. His kids were much younger than those in the Troop they might have joined, and the other Troop was very big. So he thought it would be better to start a new Troop. And it works out well for all of us.”
“We’ve partnered with other organizations in our community to do some projects,” says David. “We are planning fundraising activities with the Optimists Club and then work together on the ‘Words for Thirds’ project so that we may give dictionaries to all the third graders in the Belleville area school districts. This year we gave five districts some 700 dictionaries. We couldn’t have done as much alone and neither could the Optimists Club. Working together, we’re able to accomplish more.”
“We established a IRS code 501C-3 Foundation to raise money for scholarships and other ways to support education and our community. We take care of two big planters in downtown Belleville each summer. We collect all types of household items and especially children’s used clothing for the Airman’s Attic at Scott Air Force Base which is near us. We do highway clean-up. And of course we provide free use of the Hall for groups like 4-H and the University of Illinois Extension Service.”
Turkey Hill Grange has changed how they do business. “We created an Executive Board of 13 people – officers, board members, and committee chairs. The Board handles everything except for major decisions and expenditures which still go back to the full membership at our regular meetings. This structure has shortened our meetings and provided more time for programs and permitted more thorough evaluations of suggestions.”
“We changed the titles of our officers – President, Vice-President, Greeter, and the Lecturer is now the Program Director. But we have a Program Committee of six people. They meet four times a year and plan the next quarter’s activities. Then we put out a quarterly newsletter that lists what’s happening and when. The Program Committee shares the work – and we get a lot better programs that way. We far prefer the idea of having a program than being ‘lectured’ to,” says David.
Mary adds, “Our programs are usually light-hearted like the speaker we had on How to Reduce Stress without Spending a Dime. And sometimes the programs get quite informational like the No Child Left Behind Act.”
“We put a lot of effort into our new members. We created a New Member Packet to help them feel like they know what’s going on. It includes a letter from our President, a membership roster so they know who else they’re joining, a brochure about Turkey Hill Grange, a booklet that explains our Policies and Procedures, a booklet we developed called The Grange and You which we updated from an old National Grange booklet and then personalized it for Turkey Hill Grange, and a copy of our latest quarterly newsletter.”
“And then once a year, we hold a new member prime rib dinner. New members come and eat free and the rest of us pay $7.00. Junior Grangers do the serving, and we have a program. This year, we had a history professor give a humorous presentation on the Presidents and First Ladies of the Past.”
“We also put a lot of effort into letting people know we are there. Our Grange Hall is at the intersection of two busy roads beside the Eckert’s Orchards, the largest ‘pick-your-own orchard’ in the country. For years people thought it belonged to the Eckert’s Market next door. Now we have a big reflective sign out front plus two lighted reader board signs that can face each of the highways and advertise our next big event. We take out an ad in our local paper for each of our dinners and events, and they give us good publicity too.”
Turkey Hill Grange meets monthly on the second Friday of the month. They hold additional Social Programs in eight months of the year. An average of 44 members attend their regular meetings compared to 20 to 30 before they became an Action Grange, and they can count on about 100 people to help with their dinners and events. They estimate that about 15% of their members are under the age of 40.
In all of their activities and programs, Turkey Hill Grangers ask themselves how it will affect present and potential members. All of their meetings are open to everyone. They have modified the opening and closing ritual, have all members repeat the words of the salutation, and use a Welcoming Ceremony for all new members. They have updated the wording and eliminated duplication of the installation ceremony and Degrees, making them more personal and shorter. The four Degrees can be performed in less than 40 minutes.
When asked what has contributed to their success, Mary replies “Have a program director’s team to plan programs and activities. Involve new members as soon as they join. Have a realistic annual budget. Open all meetings to everyone. Conduct the minutia of Grange business outside the regular meetings as does our Executive Board. Communicate with all members via internet and newsletters. Develop short- and long-range goals and review them at least annually. And always have a positive ‘can do’ attitude.” |
